Conserving water in your yard:

Let nature help, when it rains, use the water again. By saving water, and reusing, it on your garden or lawn later, you save both energy and water. To save energy, water in the early morning. You'll lose less water to evaporation than if you water in the middle of the day, and the plants are less stressed and can take up the water more efficiently. The goal of lawn watering should be to apply the minimum required for the lawn to maintain health, vigor, and an acceptable appearance.

As a rule of thumb, water should be applied by watering once a week for clay soils and twice a week for sandy soils. A good way to minimize water application is to wait for water stress to appear in the lawn. Water stress indicators include drooping, color change, or footprints that remain in the lawn. Some dry areas generally will appear between watering due to spots with poor soil, poor distribution of water, or other reasons. You can water these areas by hand by a drag hose to minimize water use.

If larger areas than desired show signs of water deficiencies, decrease the time between major irrigations.  However, be careful to avoid applying more than 1-2 inches of water in any week. A drip irrigation system is a good alternative that will provide water directly to the plant. This way you can control the flow to each plant.

Calculating Lawn Sprinkler output:

• Follow these steps, just once, and you will know how much water your sprinkler puts out.  For example, if your sprinkler delivers 2 inches of water per hour, and your lawn needs 1 inch, then you need to run your sprinkler for 30 minutes that day.
• Set out 3 or 4 identical cans (i.e. tuna cans) within the sprinkler's spray and run it for 15 minutes.
• Turn off the sprinkler and pour the water from the cans into one can. With a ruler, measure the depth of water in the can.  Divide by the number of cans.
  Multiply by 4 to find out the amount of water the sprinkler puts on in one hour.
  
  

Planting Tips:

Consider planting native species. They usually use little or no water beyond normal rainfall. Grasses are either cool-season or warm-season and are also characterized as either sod forming or bunch grass. Because they are active for a shorter period of time, warm-season grasses tend to require less maintenance than cool-season grasses. They also use much less water. 

Water Conservation for the Indoors:

Use the following tips to conserve water inside your home:

• Take short showers instead of baths. Showers use an average of 5 to 7 gallons per minute, three times less than the water used to take a bath.
• Don't let the tap run every time you want a drink. Fill a pitcher with tap water and put into the fridge.
• Hand washing dishes saves 15 gallons per load, not to mention hot water costs.
• When cooking, save 10 to 15 gallons of water per meal by peeling and cleaning vegetables in a large bowl of water instead of under the running tap.
• When buying a new dishwasher, select one with a light-wash option.  Newer models use 20 percent less water than older ones.
• Recycle water from fish tanks. Use it to water plants. Fish emulsion is a good, inexpensive fertilizer high in nitrogen and phosphorous.

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